Microsoft to Acquire Powerset 2 — We're excited to announce officially that Microsoft has signed an agreement to acquire Powerset. — Powerset has always been a small company with big dreams, with the ultimate goal of changing the way humans interact with computers through language.

AT&T announces iPhone 3G pricing plans — Finally, a piece of news we can actually do something with. AT&T today announced its pricing structure for the next iteration of Apple's iPhone. There's not much that's surprising here — new customers and those eligible for an upgrade will be able …

A Cringing Quarter for Venture Capitalists — As I reported Saturday, venture capitalists experienced a very poor second quarter. The industry's trade association said Tuesday that for the first time since 1978, not a single venture-backed company went public in the quarter.

Gnip: Grand Central Station for the Social Web — Ping, ping, ping! That's the sound made day and night by the new social media technologies rapidly proliferating around the web... and the machines are getting tired. Polling for updates to user data streams, wishing they spoke the same language …

Gnip Launches To Ease The Strain On Web Services — MyBlogLog founder Eric Marcoullier sold his company to Yahoo in January 2007 for an estimated $10 million. He left Yahoo in July 2007 with the seed of a new idea germinating in his head - “Make data portability suck less.”

Engadget's Ryan Block and Peter Rojas To Team On New Startup — Engadget's editor-in-chief Ryan Block will be leaving parent company AOL shortly, sources say, to launch a new startup. Partnering with him on the new company will be Peter Rojas, Engadget's former editor-in-chief (pictured left below, next to Block).

Mac OS X approaches 8 percent market share in June — If it's the first of the month, it's time for me to be accused of being an indentured servant of web metrics firm Net Applications. Nonetheless, data from thousands of web sites and millions of visitors make it at least possible to follow trends and …

Spam experiment overloads inboxes — Surfing the web unprotected will leave the average web user with 70 spam messages each day, according to an experiment by security firm McAfee. — It invited 50 people from around the world, including five from the UK, to surf without spam filters.

Apple Spurns Intel, For Now — SAN FRANCISCO - — One of Intel's top technologists revealed Monday that the chip giant will not win a spot on Apple's iconic iPhone anytime soon, even as he outlined Intel's plans to keep growing as it turns 40 on July 18.

Bag Helps Laptop Pass Air Security — For years at airport security checkpoints, passengers have heard the refrain, almost a dirge: “Laptops must be removed from their cases and placed on the belt.” — Get ready for a change. The Transportation Security Administration has given the go-ahead …

Amazon: Hey Spammers, Get Off My Cloud! — I am accustomed to receiving e-mail from Amazon.com, as I am a fiercely loyal customer who shops there quite frequently. But it took me by surprise this weekend to discover that that mounds of porn spam and junk e-mail laced with computer viruses …

Facebook close to putting ConnectU behind it — The legal spat is winding down between Mark Zuckerberg and the former college classmates who accused him of stealing Facebook's business plan from them. — The two sides will be in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif. …